Tudge's explanation for data breaches was irrelevant according to his own spokesperson

A spokesperson for the Department of Human Services has reportedly dismissed Alan Tudge’s comments to the Parliament justifying his decision to leak private information as “not relevant”, meaning that the Minister still hasn’t explained whether the data breaches were legal.In an attempt to silence his critics over the Centrelink robo-debt debacle Mr Tudge has taken to leaking private information about those who have spoken out - but his own department now admits that the legal guidelines he quoted in the Parliament do not justify those disclosures.The Department of Human Services insists that the disclosures were made under a different law.In his speech to the Parliament, after Labor moved to suspend standing orders so that he could explain himself, Mr Tudge said;“We are able, under the Social Services Act, to release information about the person for the purpose of, as I quote, correcting a mistake of fact, a misleading perception or impression, or a misleading statement in relation to a welfare recipient.”- Hansard, 28/2/17Mr Tudge can’t explain under what law he was authorised to leak - that is a huge problem.Trying to discredit those who speak out by leaking their confidential information to the media is unacceptable - whether this action was legal or not, it is clear that it certainly wasn’t ethical.It is deeply troubling that Mr Tudge would be so vindictive, and even more so that he still can’t explain whether he has even acted within the law.Instead of targeting ordinary Australians to cover up his robo-debt disaster, Mr Tudge should get on fixing his broken system.